Metroid Eternal
by The Phantom Typewriter
Summary: Having survived her encounters with Metroid Primes and the SA-X, Samus must now come to grips with a new foe. For on the distant planet of Eternus VII, a power is stirring, the last relic of race who's might once shook the heavens and rocked the skies.
1. Default Chapter

Prologue : Reflections of the Past  
  
Still shaking, the woman slowly lowered the mug of hot chocolate onto the cold, lifeless surface of the steel table. For a few long moments she stayed exactly as she was, thoughtful blue eyes watching the seconds tick past on the digital clock, and with the slender fingers of her hand still wrapped tightly around the mug.  
  
As if noticing for the first time the heat of the mug, she withdrew her fingers, gently rubbing them in her other hand. The skin was red and puffy, the lack of burns a testament to her altered physiology. From beneath an errant lock of her ash blonde, her eyes had shifted from the clock, gazing instead out into the vast emptiness of space just beyond the window.  
  
How she loved it in space, the darkness all around her, the deep, limitless black broken only by the intermittent twinkle of distant stars. It was so like the night, and lost in its vast embrace she felt safe from the memories that haunted her like so many ghosts.  
  
Oh, she'd almost gotten used to them by now. The shadowy images of a family lost so long ago she could barely remember them. Yet still, each time she thought of her family, her first family, she felt happiness bubble up inside her, accompanied by contentment. But they were fleeting emotions, and always mingled with bitterness, for she knew that they were gone now, little more than dust on a planet almost everyone had forgotten about.  
  
There were other memories as well, ones that were every bit as precious, and every bit as sad as those of her family. Her mentor, no, she corrected herself silently, her Chozo father who had raised her, not as an outsider, but as his own. Imbuing her with his rich Chozo blood he had trained her in the arts of war, forging her raw hatred of the space pirates into a finely honed rage, one that did not control her but lived at her beck and call. But he was gone too, along with Zebes, the planet he had called home. She had destroyed it, crashing a doomed space station into it and reducing it into a vast asteroid field.  
  
Yet these were not the memories that haunted her now, no, sorrow she had dealt with before, had even come to enjoy in a twisted sense, for it was easier to cope with than the few encounters she had had with love. No, it was the temptation, the sickening thrill of battle that called to her in her sleep, wooing her with blood and fear and with images of two foes, each so different, but each so much like her.  
  
In her hands the mug had cooled to a drinkable level. Raising the mug to her lips she tilted her head back and closed her eyes, losing herself to the memories and the sweet, almost seductive feel of the chocolate gliding down her throat...  
  
====  
  
She hurt, not just in her chest where the phazon suit had been melted almost through by her adversary's lethal energies, but in her soul. Before her the flailing, battered form of Metroid Prime looked up at her. Its eyes were a vivid yellow, the colour of false gold, and they seemed to see into her very soul.  
  
Strangely enough they did not hold malice, but instead an almost smug contentment, the look of a gambling man who has staked his claim and won. Almost immediately she raised her arm cannon to finish the task when she felt its mind brush against hers. Too late she realised that it was not the instinctive, prey finding telepathy of other metroids, but the last act of a being every bit her equal.  
  
We are not so different you and I, it spoke in her mind, its voice deep and eloquent, we live to kill. A mental chuckle at that as the golden eyes began to dim. You might hate me, and my kind, but in your heart you know we are the same. Perhaps that is why you could kill me and the Chozo could not... a Hunter to hunt the supreme hunter... ironic.  
  
She strove to reply, her own mind flashing back a series of images before she could stop it. With a gasp she fell to one knee as Metroid Prime deepened the connection.  
  
So that is why you hate them so much... the Space Pirates... Caught in the intensity of its gaze she could do little more than listen. Hate... so much hate inside... just like myself... you exist to avenge yourself... to show that you are the strongest... Unnoticed its tentacles had begun to inch their way towards her. We would have made quite a pair if we had become allies... a human and a metroid, it made the mental equivalent mental of a wry smile.  
  
It was then that Metroid Prime made its final move, a dying gesture perhaps as futile as those made by her parents before the pirates. Swiftly it lashed out, one tentacle finding its mark, boring deep into her midsection, yanking, tearing, pulling at her.  
  
Torn from the mental link she screamed, pulling at the shimmering blue limb until at last she was free. But yet her freedom was dearly bought, the viral corruption of her suit torn free leaving behind only her gravity suit. Without the phazon suit she could feel the air around her humming, filling her with dangerous amounts of radiation.  
  
Run, little Hunter, run, Metroid Prime challenged, Live to fight another day.  
  
That done, it said one last thing to her before she turned and ran, the impact crater collapsing as Metroid Prime went into its death throes, its amorphous blue body expanding until it burst in a flare of blue phazon and radiance unseen except at the heart of a star.  
  
Looking back down at her hot chocolate she sighed, and remembered the last words that Metroid Prime had spoken to her. We are the same, Samus Aran, we are the same. At the time she had not believed it, but now, after all that had happened, perhaps there was some truth in his words.  
  
====  
  
They had filled her with metroid DNA. In order to save her, they had made her into a monstrosity, a human/chozo/metroid thing caught in a biomechanical shell. Then they had asked her to fight for them. And with little in her heart save hate, she had agreed and fuelled by this hate she had destroyed all in her path until at last she came face to face with the SA-X one last time.  
  
It was odd, she thought, how similar it looked to her. The suit it wore was her own, the familiar orange with the green visor. Even the details of the arm cannon, the small scratch on the left shin, were the same. She wondered what lay behind the visor. Was her suit merely a machine given life by the X-virus or were there blue eyes, as cold as her own behind the green face shield?  
  
Wordlessly they stood there, even as the station trembled, its interior damaged beyond repair. In a frightening parody of human emotion the SA-X touched its arm cannon to its visor, saluting her. Smiling grimly inside her own suit, she returned the gesture and began the battle.  
  
Later still, watching in horrified fascination as the Omega Metroid and SA- X duelled, she found herself drawn to the SA-X's movement. So like herself, it moved with a warrior's grace, never losing its footing as it darted from platform to platform, peppering the far larger form of the metroid with ice and missile fire. Clinically she assessed the SA-X, noting with some worry the ineffectiveness of its attacks. And even when she saw it die, crushed beneath the bulk of the Omega Metroid she did not let her composure slip, instead considering the best tactic as she picked up the ice beam dropped by the SA-X and engaged the Omega Metroid herself.  
  
When she had slain it and ensured the space station would deorbit she began to run, making her way over to the door that led to her ship but something stopped her. It was the SA-X, grasping her with an armoured arm that was surely broken. Stunned she stopped, and knelt by its side. Grasping her arm, the SA-X reached one hand up to its visor and tore the face shield away. Immediately she gasped and would have pulled away had not the virally infested suit restrained her.  
  
For it was her face behind the cracked visor, her face, her body that occupied her infected suit. Slowly the SA-X opened its mouth, the broken lips struggling to form words it could not possibly know but somehow did.  
  
'You... were... always... better...'  
  
'What?' She asked, afraid of what reply she might receive. 'What do you mean?'  
  
'Even... when you had... nothing... you were better... now... take back... what is yours...'  
  
Suddenly the SA-X's armour melted, the orange forming a puddle of shimmering liquid metal. Just as quickly it began to flow onto her, remoulding itself swiftly before settling into its old, familiar form upon her.  
  
'Go... now... sister...'  
  
And then she went, leaving the SA-X behind to die in the space station, but she did not see where she was going or how she got there, instead she saw the look in the SA-X's eyes. Contentment. It had found someone just like it, and having done so, was content to die, knowing its mission, its purpose would not go unfulfilled.  
  
====  
  
Lazily, she came back to herself, only dimly aware that her mug had gone cold, the chocolate in it coagulating into a dark, bitter lump. She stood then, walking to the small cleaning unit on the wall and placed the mug in it as she wiped her mouth with the back of one hand.  
  
They had been so alike, those two she had fought and killed but that was not what frightened her most, no, what frightened her most was how right they had been. All she could hope for, all that she prayed for as she wandered space, was that she would not share their fate.  
  
====  
  
Author's Notes And Legal Disclaimer  
  
All the material that preceded this legally belongs to Nintendo. I can claim nothing here, except the situation that I have put Samus in :). So, please don't sue me - besides I don't have any money :).  
  
So, just answer a couple of questions you, the reader might have. This is set after both Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion have occurred. In keeping with both of the atmospheres of those games it is not going to be a waffy fic where Samus magically wins the day with nary a scratch. She's in it for the long haul, and so am I.  
  
And finally, please, please, please, please ( well you get the picture ) review. There is nothing that makes me writes faster ( except maybe too much coffee ) than reviews. Heck, feel free to email me at phantom_typist@yahoo.com.au. 


	2. Chapter One : A Grand Demise

Chapter One : A Grand Demise  
  
The night on Eternus VII was a fickle thing, given to swift, brutal changes. Near the coast it was often cool, a gentle sea breeze wafting through to caress soft, undulating beaches. Yet every now and then, just often enough to make people wary, it would be hot and humid, ragged gales dragging moisture from a suddenly turbulent sea. Further inland, it was little better. While nights in the forests were temperate enough, in the deserts they were bitterly cold, as though the night sought to freeze what the day could not burn.  
  
In one of their few momentary lapses of rationality, the Galactic Federation had urged its scientists and other personnel to take care after dusk. Indeed, most of them preferred to stay in their carefully modulated, environmentally perfect living quarters. Most, that is, except for one particular space marine.  
  
He wasn't much to look at, being of average height with mottled brown skin and a shaven head of black hair. His brown eyes weren't particularly interesting, being perennially focused either on the floor or on some other, insignificant thing. But it was his smile, and his odour, that distinguished him most. For he was a smoker, and in an age that glorified genetic and mechanical enhancement, he was part of a dying breed. Having been banned from indulging his habit inside, he was, as his Earthly brethren had been many years ago, relegated outside.  
  
So, focused firmly on his cigarette and the dancing flame of his lighter, he paid little attention to his surroundings. Perhaps if he had, he may well have noticed the small, but swiftly growing, light in the northern sky.  
  
====  
  
The Ophidian was an old, five hundred tonne transport. In its long life it had carried everything from dignitaries to illegal weapons shipments. It had been the latter which had caused its demise. Its owner had been a fairly rich merchant, but not rich enough to buy off the Space Pirates who had boarded the vessel, killing him and the crew.  
  
But the battle had not been completely one sided. The vessel's hull was a patchwork of holes, dents and melted armour which testified to the merchant's final brave, but altogether, useless stand. With no further use for the ship, the Space Pirates had at first been determined to scrap the ship, melting it down and recycling its cordite hull. However, Eternus VII had presented the ship with the chance to avoid the scrap heap - albeit in a manner of speaking only.  
  
On board, the Ophidian's sensors were alive, casting vast electromagnetic shadows across the planet's surface as the ship's orbit continued to deteriorate. Five minutes, that was how long the ship's computer had been given to complete its task and with a steady, electrical hum it continued to work.  
  
====  
  
Down on the surface, other computers were also at work. Mounted on hilltops, mountains and other vantage points, the Federation's sensors fired back their own salvo of electromagnetism. Perpetually trained at the sky, they had been built to watch the stars through Eternus VII's remarkably clear atmosphere.  
  
This time though, they picked up something other than the occasion comet or quasar. Instead they detected a single large body, mass approximately five hundred tonnes in a rapidly deteriorating orbit. Seamlessly, in a testament to their fine craftsmanship, they began to calculate the body's trajectory. Almost as quickly as they had begun they had finished, noting with mechanical calm that it was headed straight for the main research facility.  
  
However they were astronomical sensors only, so instead of broadcasting their results, they merely continued to record and chart the body's descent, preparing the data for a scientist who would be gone in less than sixty seconds.  
  
Meanwhile at the research facility, the smoker continued his prolonged suicide, contenting himself by taking slow, soul killing breaths of the vibrant smoke. Letting out a happy sigh, he watched a cloud of grey pass his lips, dancing upwards towards the sky to caress a star that seemed too bright to belong.  
  
Dimly a thought occurred to the smoker, taking its time as it passed through nerves made slow and insensate by nicotine, that perhaps something was wrong. Though he had never taken much time to study the sky, like all space marines he knew a star when he saw one and the bright, unblinking light to his north was no star. His fears were confirmed when a wave of orange bloomed in the darkness, a thunderous roar shattering the night - the shock wave of a large body tearing through the atmosphere.  
  
His cigarette dropped from suddenly slack lips as he mentally calculated the object's trajectory and came to the conclusion that he was it. Run, the hopeful part of him suggested, surely the facility itself can withstand the impact. Yet by now pitiless logic had taken hold and it told him only one thing : he was a dead man. That realised he simply reached into his pockets, pulled out another smoke and calmly waited for the sky to fall. He wouldn't have to wait long, and at least those nicotine hating techies would die with him.  
  
====  
  
The Ophidian was travelling at approximately seventeen thousand kilometres per hour when it struck the research facility. Roughly speaking that equated to some four point seven kilometres per second. The instant it hit the ground, the facility vaporised, expanding in a vast bubble of molten metal before the downed vessel struck the hardened rock beneath.  
  
In less than a second it blasted a crater more than four kilometres in diameter and hurled more than eighty thousand tonnes of rock into the air. In the rapidly expanding dust cloud, the Ophidian itself was gone, its reinforced hull like so much paper in a firestorm.  
  
Hitting the upper atmosphere, the rock hurled up began to slow before gravity inevitably took control, accelerating lumps as large as houses straight down. Falling rapidly, the rocks ignited, friction setting them alight. Had the smoker been alive he may well have enjoyed one of the most beautiful sights imaginable, a valley of translucence where heat had forged sand into glass which captured the heady light of the stone rain that fell, burning onto the crater.  
  
====  
  
'Five minutes till total structural integrity loss, please begin evacuating immediately.' The grim warning was punctuated by a staccato of harsh, piercing klaxons.  
  
Aware, seemingly for the first time of the danger, she turned, breaking into a sprint for the door on the other side of the room. Behind her she left a scene of carnage, the bodies of the SA-X and Omega Metroid almost entwined, as though in death they been lovers rather than enemies.  
  
Smashing the door open with a missile, she ran through a hail of sparks and shrapnel as the whole space station began to shudder. Designed for research in zero gravity, little effort had been put into make it defensible and now, as it tumbled downwards into the atmosphere, it was coming apart.  
  
Before her the hallway seemed to stretch into infinity, its length pulled still further by the chaotic blinking of the hall lights as power began to fail in one sector after the other. Halfway down the hall the lights finally died, casting her into shadow.  
  
Disoriented for a moment she stumbled, her arms going before her to take the impact as she fell. Getting to her feet she put a hand to wall, feeling its heat even through the metal of her suit, she didn't have much time. The space stationed was doomed, she had seen to that, and she was determined not to share its fate.  
  
Spurred on by adrenaline she continued to run, sprinting down the corridor till she stopped, skidding to a shocked halt at a fork in the road. Inside her visor, sweat traced a salty path down her temple as she tried to remember, frantically digging her mind for some clue as to which way to turn.  
  
The space station shuddered again and began to list, the floor tilting to her right. Yet her mind was focused on her problem, turning it over and over in search of the solution. When she had last come this way in pursuit of the SA-X she had not taken note of which path she'd come from. Instead, she'd been busy trying to kill it, rage and fury for once overwhelming her steely control. And now she was paying the price.  
  
'Two and a half minutes till total structural integrity failure.'  
  
One hundred and fifty seconds she thought, trying to stymy the growing panic that rose, serpent like from her belly and uncurled to hold all her suddenly trembling limbs in its grasp. All she had to do was think, think back to her pursuit and then the answer would come.  
  
'Two minutes till total structural integrity failure.'  
  
Left, she thought, I have to go left and with that she broke into a run. Speeding down the corridors with a speed no normal human could ever hope to match, she ignored the pain that spread through her. The dimness at the edge of her vision, the harsh guttural rasp that was her breathing, even the tingling in her head, all of it was pushed aside as she focused. Run, turn left, jump, run, turn right, jump, jump, run, every single iota of her being was devoted to this single task, this one last hurdle before safety.  
  
And then she was there, the final corridor, and with an almost giddy glee she vaulted across the final gap and stopped, shocked. There was no door. Switching visors with alarm she scanned the wall in first thermal then x- ray mode, but there was no door.  
  
No, no, no, no, she thought, her hands scrabbling at the wall futilely. There was a door here, I know there was, it led to the main elevator which led to the...  
  
'One minute till total structural integrity failure.'  
  
There must be a mistake, she thought, eyeing the rest of the room, surely that's it, I can't have chosen the wrong path, I can't... and then she saw it. Outside the window SR-388 loomed like a great leviathan, the curve of the planet's surface beckoning. For its part the space station replied, its exterior glowing as it struck the atmosphere, lighting up like a christmas tree from a demented fairy tale.  
  
'Ten seconds till total structural integrity failure.'  
  
Horrified she could do little but stand there as the sheer weight of her failure fell upon her slender shoulders. A moment later she slumped to her knees, and remained that way till the space station exploded in a shimmering sphere of cinnamon flame.  
  
====  
  
Samus woke with a cry, a sob tearing itself from her lips as she clawed the darkness around her. But suddenly there was no fire, no wall of unbreakable metal, instead there was silence, a deep, edifying silence broken only by the solitary beeping of an alarm.  
  
Muttering a command, she activated the lights, their odd sodium fuelled brightness casting the room in pallid off-white shadows. With a sigh she sat up, pulling her knees to her chest and hugged herself, just once as she banished the dream from her mind, or tried to. Unable to do that she rose, tying a soft silk robe around herself before she stalked into the command area of her ship.  
  
As always the display console awaited her, a large plane of neutral blue. This time though, it displayed an image of a system unfamiliar to her. She took a seat at the console and her fingers danced with easy grace across the keyboard, calling up the specifics of the alert. Unbidden a memory came to her, soft as a feather and just as ephemeral, of her father's hands on hers, guiding her fingers onto the unfamiliar keys of a piano. She didn't play piano anymore though, she hadn't for a while.  
  
On screen the specifics came up. Approximately seven hours ago a remote signalling device on Eternus VII had ceased functioning. Designed to emit a burst of energy every hour, the signallers were capable of withstanding anything up to, and including the use of tactical nuclear weapons. They were placed in all the Federation's facilities, ostensibly to ensure personnel safety, but mainly to give the Federation forewarning of any large scale attack. That one had been eliminated indicated a substantial amount of force had been used, most likely the whole facility around the signaller had been destroyed.  
  
But yet, her own scanners, powerful as they were, had not picked up any large changes in spacecraft traffic. Apart from the occasional merchant vessel or pleasure yacht, she had space all to herself.  
  
'Computer,' she said, relinquishing the keyboard in favour of voice control. 'What do you know about Eternus VII.'  
  
Immediately the AI complied. 'Eternus VII is the fifth of ten planets orbiting the mid range, yellow star, Pinnacle. Its composition, weather and atmosphere, are all highly favourable for industry and eventual colonisation by humans. However, the research facility located on Eternus VII exists mainly to study the native fauna and flora, neither of which have been well catalogued despite a unique, and varied ecosystem.'  
  
Samus barely managed to stop her laugh, allowing herself a quiet chuckle instead. If there was one thing she could count on, it was that the Federation would never research anything unless it benefited them. Somehow studying plants and animals didn't suit them, and more to the point, the fact that the facility was now gone stirred her curiosity. At the very least she would she would have a chance to stretch her legs, to leave her ship for a while and clear her mind.  
  
'How far are we from Eternus VII, computer?'  
  
'Given our current speed and the prevailing conditions between us and the planet, we could reach it in roughly seven Earth days.'  
  
'Set our course then, computer, for Eternus VII,' she said, her fingers unconsciously tapping the console in a soft, but steady rhythm.  
  
====  
  
Author's Notes And Legal Disclaimer  
  
All the material that preceded this legally belongs to Nintendo. I can claim nothing here, except the situation that I have put Samus in :). So, please don't sue me - besides I don't have any money :).  
  
Once again here I am to answer any questions you may have about this part of the fic. As you can see, this chapter does have multiple points of view and I hope I haven't irritated anyone doing this. Also, some people seem to maintain that Adam has become Samus' computer. Now, while I like that particular notion, I honestly cannot get a handle on his personality and as she spends little time in the ship saw little reason in trying.  
  
Finally, please, please, please, please ( well you get the picture ) review. There is nothing that makes me writes faster ( except maybe too much coffee ) than reviews. Heck, feel free to email me at phantom_typist@yahoo.com.au.  
  
Yeah, and to all those people who have reviewed : THANKS!!!! 


	3. Chapter Two : Descent Into Darkness

Chapter Two : Descent Into Darkness  
  
Eternus VII loomed before the Hunter class gunship, a seemingly cloudless sphere of blue, green and sandy yellow. Slowing down to prepare itself for landing, the gunship was suddenly caught, tossed about like a fish in a net as the very fabric of space began to groan.  
  
Inside it, equipment, books, anything that wasn't bolted down began to quiver. Several glasses that hadn't broken in the initial jolt, sang and then exploded, the vibrations overloading their atomic structure. Iridescent fragments of glass filtered through the gunship as Samus struggled towards her command console through the suddenly zero gravity environment of the ship.  
  
The normally azure blue of the sensory display was gone, replace instead by a miasma of static whites and blacks. Wildly, the gunship's sensors arced about the surrounding space, desperately seeking the source of the disturbance.  
  
Then it appeared. Sleek and dangerous, the Galactic Federation Epsilon Class Cruiser, slipped through a gaping hole in space. Behind it, the darkness was taut, bent into impossible shapes and lightning flickered over the cruiser's flawless bendezium hull. As yet more the of the cruiser re- entered normal space from the seething aether of hyper-space, the gunship fired its thrusters, trying to put some distance between the two vessels.  
  
Space, already overloaded screamed and time answered its cry, each single second stretching out into eternity. Inside her ship Samus moved in slow motion, her fingers tapping out the commands with painful laziness. Abruptly though, the temporal and spacial disruptions vanished, the rest of the cruiser dropping into normal space.  
  
Startled by the sudden change, she did little but watch as the graceful bulk of the cruiser passed before her. Considered the mainstay of the Federation's forces, the Epsilon Class Cruisers had enough weaponry to turn a lush, verdant planet into a smoking crater in a few minutes.  
  
Shaking her head once to clear her nausea she initiated standard communications protocol. After two minutes though, she still had not received a response. A quick scan of the cruiser revealed the reason. On a cruiser that should have had a crew of five thousand, there were only twenty five life signals. Further more all nonessential systems such as shields, anti-scanning fields, weapons and lights were down. Something, or someone had commandeered the cruiser.  
  
Quietly, she contemplated the streamlined cruiser for a few moments before she made her decision. Grasping the controls of her gunship, she fired a few bursts from thrusters, taking her closer to the silent monolith floating almost beside her. That done, she programmed the computer, forcing it to stay as close to the cruiser as possible before she rose and stalked towards the gunship's armoury.  
  
At the armoury door, a two feet slab of solid bendezium, she stopped and entered a fifteen digit sequence that she had long ago burnt into her mind. This was followed by a retinal and palm scan before at last the massive door swung open, revealing little more than an empty chamber and a pool of bright, phosphorescent liquid.  
  
When first she had begun her life as a bounty hunter, Samus had stocked this armoury with everything from concealable pistols to plasma mortars. But now, now there was only one weapon she needed and already she could hear it, feel its metallic voice beckoning to her.  
  
Gingerly as always, she stepped up to the pool of liquid, studying it for a few moments. Inside her head she heard it whisper, promises of power and glory, flame and thunder ringing in her ears. The first time she'd heard its voice, she'd almost fainted from the shock, thinking that she managed to leave that aspect of her suit behind on the doomed space station around SR-388.  
  
Slowly, almost reluctantly, she stepped onto the pool. At the once the lights shifting within it flared, an inner radiance springing up around her and bathing the dark chamber in an unnatural light. The liquid rose from the floor, arching up to cover first her feet and then snaking up her calves. When it reached her waist she tossed aside her silk robe, remembering all to well what the liquid thought of her clothes. In a few moments it had slid up her thighs and hips, moulding to her belly before rising still further to slide up past her chest and coat her arms. As always she felt a small surge of panic as the liquid closed over her face, sealing her in darkness, left with nothing buts its icy touch and its cold, steel voice.  
  
As soon as it had covered her, the liquid's shimmering surface began to solidify. Colour appeared, the familiar orange sweeping across the liquid as it hardened into almost impenetrable metal. Beneath the metal surface, countless bio-metallic nerves sprang up, binding Samus' eyes to the visor, her right arm to the arm cannon and her whole body to the suit. Then it was done, and instead of liquid there was only metal, and instead of second skin of silver, the suit had taken on its familiar form.  
  
Striding back into the command area, she smiled, feeling the pulsing strength of the suit as every cell in her body sang with power. Lazily she made her way over to the transport elevator and rode it all the way up, coming to a rest on top of her gunship. Fifty feet across from her the cruiser maintained a steady course, unaware of her, a testament to the cloaking abilities of her gunship.  
  
One graceful leap and she was sailing across the gap, twisting as she fell to land solidly on the hardened armour of the cruiser. Carefully, she made her way along the massive vessel's hull until she came to one of several emergency exit hatches. A second later the hatch swung open, its twenty digit encryption code little more than child's play for her.  
  
Silently, she swung herself through the hatch, shutting it behind her. There was a faint hiss as the corridor repressurised then she was alone, the darkened hallways seeming to reach for some distant, black horizon.  
  
====  
  
'Our sensors have detected another life form entering the vessel.' The words were spoken in a harsh guttural tongue, that of the Space Pirates.  
  
'Show me.' The command was almost whispered but it carried a quiet menace, as well as a thinly veiled threat. 'Put it on screen now.'  
  
At the centre of the cruiser's bridge, a vast holographic projection sprang into life. For a moment there was static before the picture sharpened, shifting from an overview of the whole cruiser before narrowing down to a single corridor. Abruptly the image changed again, switching from the scanners to a security camera. The hologram shimmered to reveal a darkened corridor before a flash of orange passed the camera and was gone.  
  
'What was that?' The pirate in control of the display console asked.  
  
'That,' the quiet voice said, 'Was the Hunter.' A silence fell over the room.  
  
'The Hunter, here- urk!' The pirates question was cut off when he was grabbed round the throat and hurled across the room with astonishing speed. Groaning he picked himself up off the floor to find himself staring down the length of one, glowing thermal scythe. The scythe of his commander to be precise.  
  
'You will take ten others with you down to the data core, which is where the Hunter must be heading. I do not care what you do, or how you do, simply stop her from retrieving any data. Destroy the core if you must, we already have what we need.'  
  
For a moment the pirate contemplated refusing but then he remembered exactly what it was he'd heard about his commander. They called him 'Silver' for the brilliant streaks of silver material that he'd adorned his black armour with, but his name was Zanoth. Considered brutal even among the pirates, he had long been a favourite of Mother Brain's when it came to extortion and general piracy. Despite this though, he'd never been promoted very far, his natural propensity for violence far too excessive to entrust him with anything but the most basic of assignments. But with the events on Talon IV, the loss of Mother Brain and countless other losses, he had risen swiftly in the last few months. More to the point, he had once had a merchant who'd refused delivery of plasma weaponry killed by placing him in the barrel of a plasma artillery cannon.  
  
'Yes... immediately...' the pirate stuttered, sighing with relief as the scythe pulled back just enough to let him stand.  
  
'Do not fail,' Zanoth said, his voice quiet as ever, though each word wreaked of barely restrained rage. 'Else I shall have to kill you.'  
  
====  
  
Samus leapt to the side, her nose crinkling behind the visor as the acrid scent of ozone filled the air. With cold mechanical fury, the two turrets blocking her path continued to fire, tracking her even as she rolled behind the safety of a wall.  
  
A second later she stepped out and fired off a single missile, the blast of concussive energy reducing the steel turrets to melted slag. Then she was off again, running down the corridor towards the data core. Up ahead another turret loomed up and this one was the recipient of a finely aimed missile as well. Perhaps a solid minute of running later, she reached the core, her eyes taking a moment to adjust to the bright light.  
  
Roughly octagonal in shape, the data core complied with the standard Federation design almost exactly. At the centre of the chamber was the tall central processing column, and on the walls were arrays of terminals. However something else caught her attention. Bending down to the floor she looked closely at a small, shining patch of blue so dark it was almost purple. Phazon.  
  
Startled she thought back to the corridor and the peculiar stains she'd seen on the wall. They must have been phazon as well. That would explain how the pirates had managed to seize such a well armed vessel. Introduce even a small amount of phazon to the ventilation shafts and anyone breathing it in would die, the pain centres of their brain literally exploding from over stimulation.  
  
Slowly she rose and swallowed nervously. She'd had more than one bad experience with phazon. But back to the task at hand, she had to start downloading as much information from the data core as she could and hopefully whatever reasons the pirates had for taking over this vessel and coming to Eternus VII would be revealed.  
  
As she began the download, her metal sheathed hand pressed up against the central processing unit, she considered one of the other benefits, if you could call it one, of her new suit. Biologically fused to her, her suit passed on sensations, touch, taste, sight, smell, hearing with crystal clarity and so she shouldn't have been surprised that she could actually see and read the information as it was decrypted rather than waiting for a full translation. Sparing a moment to shut the doors, she closed her eyes as the information began to appear, filling the inky darkness behind her lids with glittering white lettering.  
  
====  
  
Data Entry FK-22ZT-EKA1  
  
Eternus VII remains as much a mystery today as it has when I began my research. Despite numerous attempts to understand what kind of material could possibly cause the mutations we have seen in the native wildlife, little has been achieved.  
  
However geological scans of the entire planet's surface have proved interesting. The planet's surface shows signs of major terraformation on a scale which we have never before encountered. Indeed the central plain which dominates the largest of the planet's continents sits atop a layer of what seems to be solid iron which is completely flat. This layer is perhaps seven hundred or more metres deep and has remained impervious to drilling and scanning attempts.  
  
How such a layer was formed is beyond my understanding, as is its purpose. Perhaps when the plasma drilling team arrives I will be able to uncover more.  
  
Data Entry DZ-54AF-EKA1  
  
The plasma drilling team have provided a revelation. The material we thought to be iron, or iron ferrite was something entirely different. This material, of unknown composition and origin, shows remarkable resilience to physical and chemical attack. In fact, I estimate its physical toughness to be roughly ten times of bendezium's.  
  
However the regularity with which this material was distributed, in an almost spherical shell beneath the planet's surface, leads me to believe it is being used to protect something. Much as we build our bunkers beneath layers of bendezium, I believe that someone, or something has constructed something of some importance beneath the rock and earth of Eternus VII.  
  
Furthermore we have uncovered other things, relics, if you will from a forgotten past. Little more than tablets of language, we have successfully decoded around thirty percent of the symbols and are not far from a complete translation. Frequent references to 'Sanctuary' seem to occur in almost every tablet we have yet discovered. The significance of this remains unclear at this time though.  
  
Data Entry TR-17DL-EKA1  
  
We have found another strange material on Eternus VII. Great lodes of this material, one which the tablets refer to as 'Siravin' are located underneath several mountains on the main continent. This material though, demonstrates not physical strength, but energy absorption. Communication with colleagues involved with the metroid studies, has shown disturbing parallels. Much like metroids, this 'Siravin' consumes any energy it comes into contact with.  
  
While others believe the lodes to be of natural origin, I myself disagree. To me, the distribution is too regular, as though the lodes were spokes in a wheel who's centre we cannot see. They remind me of batteries, storing vast amounts of thermal and solar energy to power some device we have not yet encountered. However, this is still but speculation and I may well be wrong but there is something here that reminds me not of nature's wonderful but haphazard hand, but of the cunning ways of man.  
  
====  
  
Samus broke the connection as soon as she realised the doors of the data core were being pried open. A fraction of a second later the doors actually blew apart, the bendezium plates bending obscenely before flying to opposite sides of the room.  
  
Emerging from the smoking wreck of the door, eleven pirates streamed into the room, galvanic accelerators firing a wave of crimson energy bolts at her. Too late she realised her error in diving to the side as the data core died a screaming death, spewing its lifeblood of electricity around the room in gouts of white hot lightning.  
  
Rolling onto her feet she returned fire, letting loose a missile into the tightly packed mass of pirates. They were ready for it though, and scattered, several taking up positions behind computer consoles while others moved closer, preparing to engage in melee combat.  
  
The first reached her in less than a second, its scythe a glowing arc of tempered metal. With one hand she reached up, catching the pirates forearm and hurling him to the side as she activated her power beam and riddled his sprawling body with its lethal energy.  
  
She turned to find the next one already in the air, leaping straight for her. Lacking the time to fire at him she side-stepped, moving smoothly to the left before she buried a fist into its gut. Satisfied she heard it gag, retching as her augmented strength cracked armour and shattered bone. A thrill surged through her veins, this she thought as she speared it with a stream of power beam energy, is power.  
  
Bolder now, she strode forward, ignoring the somewhat inaccurate fire of the pirates hiding behind the consoles, evidently too scared by the silent, metal hunter that was killing them one by one, to aim accurately.  
  
A harsh smile came to her lips as she lashed out with one foot, snapping a pirate's head around before she grabbed it and hurled it across the room to crash into its comrades. Growling she peppered the downed pirates with power beam fire, watching the energy send up fountains of gore.  
  
Behind her the remaining pirates had formed a crude phalanx, their accelerators aimed squarely at her. She heard nothing but the distant hum of energy discharge before searing agony erupted along her back and she was jerked heavily from side to side. She whirled around almost immediately, blocking out the pain as more shots struck her chest, the organic linkages between her and her suit relaying every single sensation.  
  
Stunned the pirates could only gape in horror as she knelt and fired off a missile again. This time they didn't dodge, their phalanx too tight to allow swift mobility. Instead they were caught in the blast, their armour disintegrating as their bodies were tossed about the room like rag dolls.  
  
After the echo of the explosion had cleared, the data core was eerily silent. Indeed, except for her own harsh breathing, she could hear nothing. But just to be sure she scanned the bodies and found that one still lived. Grimly she walked over to it and hauled it off the floor to slam it into one of the walls.  
  
It groaned and struggled, trying to bat her away with arms that were obviously broken. To quieten it she shoved her arm cannon in its face, almost relishing the fear that rolled off it in waves.  
  
'Why are you on this ship?' She asked the question softly, letting her arm cannon do the threatening.  
  
Instead of replying though the pirate made as if to escape, its feet scrabbling uselessly on the floor. So she punched it. Again it wouldn't stop moving, its eyes bulging from the sockets as it tried to flee. So she punched it again, and again, and again until it stopped moving.  
  
It was the splatter of blood on her visor that stopped her. She could feel it, green and viscous flowing down the visor's shiny surface. Absently she dropped the pirate to the ground and stared at her blood covered hand. From nowhere came the urge to lick it, to bring the hand up to her face and smear it all over her cheek.  
  
What's happening she thought, shaking as she suppressed the urge. Damn it, I always killed the pirates but I've never been like... like... An animal, a helpful part of her mind suggested, or perhaps like the SA-X?  
  
Her contemplation was torn from her though, when the alarms in the room started to go off, one by one. A quick glance at the few remaining monitors confirmed her fears. The pirates were sealing off this part of the ship.  
  
Automatically she broke into a run, making her way back through the now utterly silent corridors until she was at the hatch again. Swinging herself back up onto the cruiser's hull she realised she'd have to find another hatch to access the bridge. She had just started to move when she heard a noise to her left accompanied by a low hum.  
  
To her left a laser turret had turned in her direction. Its four heavy laser cannons were indexing jerkily, targeting sensors sending out invisible rays of guidance in all directions. Almost instantly they found her and she was left standing on the hull with no cover staring down the barrel of a laser turret strong enough to take out a starfighter.  
  
====  
  
With childlike, delight, Zanoth watched the Hunter on the display screen, his right hand dancing across the guidance controls. On screen the Hunter had broken into a run, briskly turning this way and that in an attempt to avoid the laser turret's fire. But, wait, what was this?  
  
Suddenly the Hunter leapt seemingly into empty space and landed on something that shimmered against the blackness of space. A cloaked ship, of course. Feeling his blood lust rise, Zanoth swung the laser turret around, turning its four cannons on the ship that he knew occupied the space beneath the Hunter.  
  
The result was immediate and devastating. Fire blossomed and consumed the Hunter and a gunship materialised, its hill pitted and burning. Grinning, Zanoth opened fire again and watched, with no small degree of satisfaction, as the gunship fell towards Eternus VII, its engines dead and flames licking at its hull. He was even more pleased when he saw it strike the atmosphere, sending up a plume of bright orange. Nothing could possibly survive that.  
  
====  
  
On board her gunship, Samus suppressed a cry of agony. The inferno raging in her ship had eaten away parts of her armour, leaving bare skin exposed. Moreover her whole body was sore, the blasts had slammed her into the walls of her ship, hard, and she was almost certain she'd broken her right arm.  
  
Blindly she crawled towards the command console, vainly trying to restore some semblance of order to her ship. But her body, bruised and burned refused to co-operate and the last thing she saw was the great sphere that was Eternus VII leering up at her like an enormous, judgemental eye.  
  
====  
  
Author's Notes And Legal Disclaimer  
  
All the material that preceded this legally belongs to Nintendo. I can claim nothing here, except the situation that I have put Samus in :). So, please don't sue me - besides I don't have any money :).  
  
Now to answer any questions you might have about this part of the fic. The first thing I have to say is : yes, this chapter is longer than any of the others, but no, I am happy with it. Frankly, I did contemplate splitting it up into two parts but after writing it realised how bad that would be. Another thing, the way Samus dons her suit is something of my invention and is how I perceive the various corruptions to the original suit would interact. As for Zanoth, you can bet we'll be seeing more of him in the future :).  
  
Finally, please, please, please, please ( well you get the picture ) review. There is nothing that makes me writes faster ( except maybe too much coffee ) than reviews. Heck, feel free to email me at phantom_typist@yahoo.com.au.  
  
Yeah, and to all those people who have reviewed : THANKS!!!! 


	4. Chapter Three : Tranquil Green

Chapter Three : Tranquil Green  
  
Her whole body was taut beneath the blanket, fear and nausea battling for her attention. Inside her bedroom it was dark, except for the faint sliver of light that crept beneath the door. Caught by the few strands of white that slipped along the floor and onto the walls, her teddy bear kept solitary watch over her, its dark eyes glinting with an almost malevolent glow.  
  
Fearfully, she tried to quieten her breathing, to calm the frantic rhythm of heart and lungs. If she didn't, if she made too much noise then they would come and then... it didn't even bear thinking about.  
  
For some, incalculable, perioid of time she lay there, hovering in a place that was almost sleep but was devoid of dreams or peace. Instead she watched the shadows dance across the walls and tracked the shapes that flitted in the darkness behind her eyelids. Then she heard them, heard them outside her door.  
  
It ws the metal boots that gave them away, the added weight making the floor boards sing a crazy, hectic hymn of horror. Then she saw two dark shapes blot the light beneath the door and she knew that they stood outside her door. Closing her eyes, she tugged the blanket higher, hoping that for once that they would move past her door. But they never did, and they didn't this time.  
  
Slowly the door opened, each squeak of the hinge a scream that she wished she could make. But if she screamed then mommy and daddy would come and then they would get them. So she squirmed deeper into the bed and shut her eyes so tight that tears almost came to them.  
  
A moment later she heard their footsteps across her floor and heard their breath above her blanket and she knew that if she opened her eyes, if she just opened them even a little that she would see them. And if hearing them was bad, if hearing made her feel like she was already dead then she knew, she just knew that seeing them would be a thousand times worse.  
  
Yet against her will she felt her eyes opening as a clawed, inhuman hand ran through her hair. Please, she thought, please, please, please go away. Just a fraction, that's all, but it was enough for her to see them.  
  
They stood tall as men, but far more threateningly. Their legs bent oddly at the knees and their arms were long and gangly, but it was the face, the face behind the mask that made her scream and scream and scream. It was not human. The eyes were glittering facets of compound brilliance, antennae protrude from the forhead and worst of all the mouth, no teeth in it at all but a strange, insectoid hole that gaped like an open wood from discoloured inhuman flesh.  
  
Grinning, they bent over her and whispered her name before stretching out one claw-like hand and running it down her cheek. Tears trickling down her face she sucked in a deep, terror fuelled breath and-  
  
====  
  
Samus awoke with a dazed groan, her battered body betraying her as she tried to sit up and push aside the heavy steel plate on top of her. Instead she felt tendrils of agony race down her right arm and lance into her skull, her vision blurring from the sheer, mind numbing pain. Then, when she heard the broken ends of her forearm grate against each other she almost retched.  
  
Slumping back to the ground, she took a few deep, heavy breaths trying to calm her racing heart. Slowly, her pulse and breathing returned to normal and she squirmed around until it she could push on the steel plate with her left arm. It tumbled off her with a hollow clang and she took hold of a nearby console to pull herself to her feet.  
  
At first the room swayed and she blinked several times to clear the haziness from her vision. Finally, she began to walk, a cumbersome, shuffling gate that was a testament to the scores of bruises that marred her body beneath the suit. Inside her visor a brief display sprang up, stating the damage to both her body and the suit itself.  
  
Her grapple beam, morph ball, charge up beam and missile launcher were all disabled. In its desire to save her life, the organic part of the suit had destroyed all nonessential systems, diverting all power to sustaining the suit's armour. Unfortunately though the suit had managed to keep her alive, it had overloaded and she'd lost both varia and gravity suit capabilities as well.  
  
What worried her more though was the sorry condition she was in. Extensive bruising to virtually every part of her body, a broken right arm and several hair line fractures in her other limbs meant that even moving was painful. Somehow she had to get to a power source for with adequate power the suit would be able to restore most of its functions as well as begin accelerating her healing.  
  
With a grimace she staggered out of the almost totally destroyed ship and took stock of her surroundings. The ship had crashed on a large plateau, perhaps five kilometres across, that overlooked a vast, seemingly limitless expanse of lush green forest. At the base of the plateau she could see a river, wide and fast flowing, that wound its way through the maze of green before emptying into an enormous lake some ten kilometres to her north.  
  
Switching her scan visor on she activated a long neglected search pattern, letting the suit project tenuous strands of energy to the distant horizon. Almost immediately the scan visor found what it sought, a large, relatively stable source of energy. Automatically cycling into magnification mode, her visor zoomed in on the lake, revealing a large, seemingly abandoned metal structure on a small island in the middle.  
  
Interesting, she thought, willing the magnification of the visor to increase until she could clearly make out the Galactic Federation insignia on the structure's walls. Unbidden, a series of readings popped into her vision. The power source was a standard, Galactic Federation fusion generator, more than adequate for her needs and was located no more than thirty metres below the ground.  
  
I have to get there, otherwise... she ran her left hand across her right arm and winced, I'm in a lot of trouble.  
  
A few minutes later she had made her way over to the edge of the plateau, and found herself looking down a nearly vertical sheet of porous rock about a hundred metres in height. Normally she'd be able to scale it with ease but in her condition she'd have to be careful. As she lowered herself over the edge she made a few last adjustments, diverting power to her right arm and retracting the arm cannon.  
  
With agonising caution she made her way down the rock face. There were times, many times when her hands slipped, the sleek metal of her suit finding little purchase in the rock or sliding off moist, overgrown moss. More than once she had to stifle a scream as the loose rock gave way beneath her. Finally though she reached the bottom, and panting knelt to take a few moments rest.  
  
Just a few hundred metres ahead of her she could see the swiftly moving waters of the river and with a dogged determination she stumbled over to it. Beside the river, the ground was moist, rich black sand and her metal boots sank deeply into it, leaving her with little choice but to retreat back onto the harder soil of the forest.  
  
For a while she simply walked alongside the river, content to let its melodic bubbling soothe her jagged nerves. Listening to it, she tried to focus not on the dull, throbbing and insistent pain that shot through her whole body, but on the ground in front of her, taking the ten kilometre walk one step at a time.  
  
Some time later, she couldn't be sure how long she'd been walking, only that her thighs had begun to ache and cramp, she heard a rustle from the trees. With instinctive speed she whirled to face the forest, her arm cannon at the ready. Damn it, she thought, studying the forest's edge and the deep empty shadows cast by the massive trees of the canopy, there's no way I can see anything.  
  
She had just begun to turn away when she felt, rather than saw something flying at her. Blindly, she twisted to the right, feeling something large and powerful spear beneath her arm and strike the sand by the river's edge with stunning force.  
  
A faint hiss drew her attention, and she saw what it was that had so nearly struck her. It was long and serpentine, its five metre long body rippling with hardened, shimmering scales. Upon its head, two diamond like eyes studied her, flickering from her arm cannon to her visor with malicious intelligence.  
  
Inside her visor, the suit's inbuilt memory kicked in, displaying part of the data she'd managed to steal from the cruiser before she'd crashed.  
  
'Creature identified.' The voice was the robotic drone of the original power suit, rather than the vibrant, passion suffused diction of the fusion infused suit. 'The Creeper is a large, reptile, bearing a remarkable aesthetic and anatomical resemblance to the snake. Though able to engage only in melee combat and lacking any venom, the Creeper's tough scales and enormous physical strength means that it should be approached with caution.'  
  
Almost as though it had been waiting for the morphology report to finish, the Creeper coiled itself into a spring, its whole body tensed and ready. In an instant it sprang and before Samus could fire she found herself face to face with the reptile as it wrapped its great length around her and began to squeeze.  
  
Ignoring the pain in her right arm, she wedged the arm cannon between her chest and the Creeper, using her left hand to reach for its head. Hissing once more, the Creeper tightened its coils and she groaned, her back arching in agony before her hand found its head and clenching tightly, shattered its skull. Immediately, the body went slack and with a relieved sigh she tossed it aside.  
  
Gazing back into the brooding forest she decided that maybe, maybe trudging in the mud would be safer than straying too near the trees. With that thought in mind she resumed walking, cradling her right arm in her left.  
  
About an hour later the river began to broaden, the fast flow slowing to little more than a trickle as the lake unfurled before her like a sail in the wind. Despite the danger the forest presented, she found herself lost in its beauty for a moment. The lake was almost perfectly circular, its edge lined with a broad belt of black sand and ringed with verdant greenery. In its shining, almost crystalline depths, she saw her reflection, noting with a wry smile the sorry state of her suit.  
  
Activating the scan visor again she located an access control panel on the other side of the lake, and realising that there was no way she could swim across in her current condition, resolved to reach it. The sand by the lake's edge was firmer than by the river's and so in a few short minutes she'd reached the panel and after a bit of tinkering she was rewarded with a quiet hum as it sprang to life.  
  
When she turned her eyes back to the lake she was stunned to see a huge, dark shape rising from its depths. Long, and thin it was too regular to be an animal and as it rose still higher she realised it was the silhouette of a narrow bridge between the shore and the facility. After a few moments the bridge had risen to the surface and locked into place with a resounding clank, small red lights activating along its length.  
  
She had taken no more than three steps towards it when once more she had the impression of something, large and muscled hurtling towards her. This time though, she was too slow and was sent tumbling through the sand, sending up thick plumes of ebony dust as she came to rest on her back.  
  
Sitting up quickly she studied her attacker with practised ease. It was a large feline, with fur the colour of a moonless night. Beneath its fur, muscles rippled smoothly, the beast's whole form seemingly imbued with barely repressed strength. On her visor its name sprang up : Serinor. It gave her precious little time to analyse it though as it attacked again, its glinting claws catching the dim light of the dusk sun.  
  
Desperately, she rolled to the left, lashing out with one metal boot and gratified by the dull thunk of metal on flesh. With a snarl the big cat loped away, putting some distance between them as it began to circle. Bit by bit, she inched away from it, until at last the narrow bridge was directly behind her.  
  
As it leapt once more she swung with one armoured fist and sent it sprawling. Then she was off and running towards the bridge, her footfalls ringing out with metallic clarity as her gait shifted from a narrow walk to a wide, somehow graceful run. But the cat was not idle and the Serinor had not reached the top of the food chain by giving up easily.  
  
It followed her onto the bridge and slowly but surely it gained on her till it was little more than a half step behind her. Once again she felt its sleek, streamlined body rise behind her but this time she was ready and she spun, swiping at it with her left arm. She struck it soundly but it clung to her, sinking its teeth into the armour.  
  
Suppressing a scream as its weight put pressure on several bruises, she tried to shake it off. When that failed she shoved the arm cannon into its face and fired. Instantly the energy took effect, the fur vaporising in a hot, bitter red spray as the underlying bone fragmented and was blasted away.  
  
Falling onto her haunches she crawled away before taking hold of the railing on the bridge and getting to her feet again. A moment later she was at the end of the bridge, a single, solid bedezium elevator door in front of her.  
  
Taking one last look at the downed animal she activated the doors and stepped inside the elevator, her nose crinkling as the stale, dead air filtered into her suit. Outside the air was rent with howls as the forest came to life.  
  
Night was coming soon and with it something tall and terrible, something that stalked the dark, lonely places between the trees. Something that was at the lake's edge waiting for its prey. And as the elevator reached the bottom, the sun dipped just below the horizon, painting the lake a gentle blood red.  
  
====  
  
Author's Notes And Legal Disclaimer  
  
All the material that preceded this legally belongs to Nintendo. I can claim nothing here, except the situation that I have put Samus in :). So, please don't sue me - besides I don't have any money :).  
  
Now it's time for me to answer a few of the questions you probably have. Firstly, if Samus has a broken arm and extensive bruising, how is she still functional? Simply put Samus is not human. She has been infused with the X- virus, phazon, metroid DNA and Chozo blood. All of this leads me to believe that she has inhuman strength. Also, in my opinion, the biological fusing of the suit with her means that while wearing it, she is able to survive injuries that would normally kill her. Finally, the suit runs off pure energy, and because it is biomechanical once it has enough energy, it will first repair itself then repair Samus, which is why she is venturing into the facility.  
  
Finally, please, please, please, please ( well you get the picture ) review. There is nothing that makes me writes faster ( except maybe too much coffee ) than reviews. Heck, feel free to email me at phantom_typist@yahoo.com.au.  
  
Yeah, and to all those people who have reviewed : THANKS!!!! 


End file.
